22 BIRD LIFE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR 



foraging parties of skylarks are attacking his young 

 spring cabbages, and that wood-pigeons in the early 

 morning have damaged the broccoli and Brussels 

 sprouts. 



One may make a long round while the snow lasts, 

 finding at every turn something of interest, in noting 

 the shifts to which birds are driven to make a living 

 and their aptitude for making the best of trying 

 circumstances. Lapwings are everywhere upon the 

 move and a plaintive whistle tells that there are Golden 

 Plover with them. The Snipe, driven from the bogs, 

 have sought the warm drains and sides of running 

 ditches. Woodcock, too, are snowed-dut of then- 

 usual haunts, and one stumbles across them in all sorts 

 of unexpected places — one near the lodge-gate, another 

 close to the stable-yard. But nowhere is there such 

 a gathering of the clans as in the stack-yards, which 

 rise like kindly islands from the sea of white, offering 

 both food and shelter. Finches and buntings in their 

 varied tribes are here in force. Nowhere else can one 

 so well compare their varied traits and mannerisms, and 

 never does a bright sun bring out their details of 

 plumage better than with the snow as background. 

 Some merely hop and peck ; others fly up to the sides 

 of the ricks to pull out straws in the hope of obtaining 

 the ears of corn. In addition to chaffinches and 

 greenfinches, there are to-day Bramblings in every 

 stackyard. Reed-buntings fraternise with the yellow- 



